The present invention relates to an anti-icing/de-icing system using ultrasound waves for an external surface of a structure likely to be iced, such as an aircraft wing or engine nacelle, such a structure incorporating this system and an anti-icing/de-icing method implemented by this system.
The use of ultrasound waves for de-icing airplane wings, helicopter blades or aircraft engine nacelles in particular is known. Document DE-A-10 2004 060 675 describes a device and a method using piezoelectric transducers arranged behind the leading edge of an airplane wing to handle the de-icing of the latter, with a working frequency chosen according to the rigidity of the structure of this wing.
Also known from the document WO-A-2007/095935 is the use of a two-dimensional network of transducers incorporated inside an airplane wing which emit ultra-sounds to measure, via a scan of the iced surface of the wing and the detection of the ultrasound waves reflected by the edges of this surface, the thickness of the layer of ice covering this wing.
A major drawback of the known deicing systems for these aircraft structures lies notably in the non-optimized energy consumption which is required to prevent the icing and/or satisfactorily de-ice at each instant all the relevant areas of the external surface of these structures.